3.4
Germany's Golden Age
The early 1920s were a difficult and unstable
time in Germany. As well as having to come
to terms with defeat in the First World War
and the Treaty of Versailles’s punishments,
it was a time of invasion, hyperinflation,
putsches and murders. There were great
cultural changes in Germany at this time
too: cinema, art, literature, and music
changed dramatically. But did all Germans
welcome these changes?
A ‘golden age’?
The 1920s have been called a ‘golden age’
for German artists, writers, poets and
performers who became known for their
creativity and innovation. Before the First
World War, the Kaiser kept tight control
on all types of entertainment – but these
controls were removed in Weimar Germany
and now many Germans felt a new sense
of freedom. After the horrors of the war and
the difficulties of the early 1920s, many
people decided to experiment with new
ideas and try new things.
▼ SOURCE A A poster for a German film
from the 1920s
Objectives
▼ SOURCE B Otto Dix was one of the most famous artists of his time. He lived
in the German cities of Dresden, Dusseldorf and Berlin, and painted the stark
differences between the richer, fashionable people in the nightclubs (the middle
panel) and the poor beggars on the streets who had fought in the war and returned
home with missing limbs or shattered minds (the two outside panels).
Cinema
Cinema became very popular in Weimar Germany. Metropolis, directed
by the famous Fritz Lang, was the most technically advanced film of
the decade, while German-born actress Marlene Dietrich became a
worldwide star playing glamorous, strong-willed women.
Nightlife
Germany became a centre for new plays, operas and theatre shows
during this time. Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera was a box
office smash; musicians performed vulgar songs about politicians
that would have been banned in the Kaiser’s day. Berlin, in particular,
was famous for its nightclubs with live bands that played the latest
music brought over from America – jazz music. Some of these clubs
provided dancers who appeared naked, or put on ‘transvestite
evenings’ where men dressed as women and women dressed as men.
Literature
Writing became big business in Germany too. People had 120
newspapers and magazines to choose from. A German anti-war novel,
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque, sold half a million
copies in just three months. It has since been made into two highly
successful films.
Design
A new group of designers and architects began work at this time. They
were known as the Bauhaus and designed anything from chairs to
coffee pots to office buildings. They believed in modern, simple and
practical designs, rather than the more elaborate designs of long ago.
Reactions to the Weimar cultural
changes
While some Germans embraced the changes, others hated
them. They wanted art, music, theatre, film and literature
to celebrate the older, traditional values of Germany, and
hated this new period of experimentation and freedom.
They thought the new nightclubs, shows and paintings were
leading Germany into a moral decline. Berlin was viewed by
some as corrupt and sex-obsessed. The Nazis, for example,
openly criticised the nightclubs and art of this period, and
when Hitler finally came to power in 1933, many Weimar
artists and performers (like Fritz Lang and George Grosz)
had to flee Germany.
Weimar democracy: political change and unrest 1919-1923
Work
1 What do you understand by the word
‘culture’? Try to write your own definition.
2 Look at Source A.
a Why might this film appeal to both men
and women?
b Why might some people criticise the film?
3 Look at Source B. What do you think Dix felt
about the disabled ex-soldiers featured in his
painting, and the richer middle classes at the
nightclubs?
▼ INTERPRETATION A From Germany by Jon Nicol and Robert Gibson,
this was written by a German poet who lived in Berlin in the 1920s:
Theatres, opera and concert houses were filled to capacity.
European artists from Paris, London and Rome who came
to Berlin were excited by it and didn’t want to leave. The
atmosphere was electric.
▼ INTERPRETATION B Adapted from a letter written by Professor Willy
Maillard of the Berlin School of Art, to the Nazi Minister of Science and Art in
1933, about the changes to German art in the 1920s:
In recent years, developments in art have led to chaos. The
[experimental ideas] that have been foisted on German art
must be taken care of, everything that encourages subversion
must be thrown out, just as the new government has already
done in political and economic life.
Chapter 3
culture avant-garde Bauhaus
▶Explain the cultural changes taking
place in Weimar Germany during the
1920s
▶Consider the reasons for the changes
▶Contrast the different reactions of
Germans to Weimar culture.
Art
Art also flourished in Germany. Avant-garde artists such as Otto Dix
and George Grosz believed art should show the reality of everyday
life, in particular the differences in social classes and society, and
should make people think. They tried to show what Germany was
actually like at this time and often painted in a way that criticised
current events.
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Key Words
stion
Practice Que
Why might the authors of
Interpretations A and B have a different
interpretation about Weimar art?
Explain your answer using
Interpretations A and B and your
contextual knowledge.
4 marks
Study Tip
Consider the provenance of the two
interpretations. Who is the author
addressing, and how might that affect
what they think about Weimar art?
Germany: Democracy and dictatorship 1890-1945
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